If it can be difficult to remember who won the Academy Award for Best Picture, it’s downright mindbending trying to remember everything else it was up against. In An Honor To Be Nominated, I’ll be taking a look back at some of the movies the Oscar didn’t go to and trying to determine if they were robbed, if the Academy got it right, or if they should ever have been nominated in the first place.[Read on here...]

After the success of 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968, Stanley Kubrick turned his complete attention to a mammoth epic based on the life of Napoleon. He spent years researching both the man and the period, going into meticulous detail. In his notes, he modestly claimed it would be “the best movie ever made.”

As the proposed budget for Kubrick’s Napoleon went ever higher, Sergei Bondarchuk’s Waterloo starring Rod Steiger as Napoleon was released. The big-budget epic flopped at the box office, causing Kubrick’s financiers to back out of his project. Kubrick went on to make A Clockwork Orange but Napoleon remained a dream project. The entire story can be found in the beautifully designed book Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon: The Greatest Movie Never Made from Taschen.

All that research didn’t go to waste, however. It would inform a different period epic, 1975’s Barry Lyndon. Based on a novel by William Makepeace Thackeray, the film follows an Irish cad (played by Ryan O’Neal) as he makes his way in the world by any means necessary. The movie was not an immediate success but today is widely considered one of Kubrick’s most underrated works.

As usual, Kubrick kept the production shrouded in secrecy. Ryan O’Neal seemed an odd choice for a Kubrick project but it wasn’t as if the director had much choice. One of Warner Bros.’ only conditions for bankrolling the project was the casting of an A-list star in the lead and the studio provided Kubrick with a very short list of names. After Robert Redford passed, Kubrick turned to O’Neal, riding high after the blockbuster success of Love Story.

Apart from casting suggestions, the studio was so eager to keep Kubrick in the Warner Bros. family that they let him go and hoped for the best. Principal photography stretched on to a whopping 300 days and the film’s budget eventually hit $11 million. When executives visited Kubrick in London to prepare for the marketing campaign, the filmmaker refused to show them any footage but assured them Oscars were in their future.

As it turned out, Kubrick was right. The film essentially swept the technical awards in 1975, a decision that even the movie’s harshest critics wouldn’t be able to argue with. Barry Lyndon is undeniably gorgeous, featuring some of the most sumptuous set and costume design you’ll see in any period film.

But if anyone deserved their Oscar, it was cinematographer John Alcott. Despite popular belief, it isn’t true that no artificial light was used during filming. However, it is true that the candlelit interiors were shot using only the light provided by the hundreds of candles. Not only did this require the development of special super-fast lenses and experimentation with film stock, it also prohibited much movement on the part of the actors during these scenes. The entire film is simply astonishing to look at. Kubrick more than succeeded at capturing the look of 18th century painters like William Hogarth.

Even though everyone agreed that Barry Lyndon was a remarkable technical achievement, critics and audiences weren’t entirely convinced it succeeded as a movie. The film is slow-moving and the usual arguments that Kubrick was too cold and detached a filmmaker to make a movie about actual human beings were rehashed.

But I’m often surprised how many people fail to see the comedy in Barry Lyndon. Thackeray was first and foremost a satirist and the film succeeds in capturing that, particularly through the droll narration of Michael Hordern. But another element in capturing the book’s wit is the oft-criticized performance of Ryan O’Neal.

True, O’Neal is a bit of an empty canvas in the film and his Irish brogue is indifferent at best. But Barry is a character who never quite fits in with his surroundings. He’s an opportunist but not a particularly ambitious or active one. He’s a man in constant need of a patron or a protector. In many ways, O’Neal is the perfect actor for the part. He grows into the role as the film goes along and thanks to him, Barry never seems too weak or too unlikable.

Barry Lyndon has received a critical reappraisal since its release in 1975. In 2005, Time Magazine listed it as one of the 100 best films ever made and Kubrick fans have latched on to it as one of the director’s best works. Barry Lyndon isn’t an easy movie to embrace but it’s impossible not to admire. The first time you see it, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by its technical genius. But the second or third time, you’ll likely get caught up in the strangely charmed life of Barry Lyndon.

We’re going to be starting today’s Oktoberfest Giveaway over on The Digital Bits Facebook page at Noon (Pacific), featuring a copy of Anchor Bay’s recent Halloween: 35th Anniversary Edition! The Giveaway will be easy to enter and we’ll accept entries until 3 PM (Pacific), so be sure to head on over there and participate for your chance to win!

In announcement news, Sony has set White House Down for Blu-ray and DVD release on 11/5. Both versions will include 4 featurettes (A Dynamic Duo, Men of Action, Roland Emmerich: Upping the Ante and Meet the Insiders). To this, the Blu-ray will exclusively add a gag reel and 9 additional featurettes (The Beast, The Full Arsenal, VFX Boundaries Down, The Inside Story, Presidential Treatment, Lights, Camera, Heart-Pumping Action, Crashing the Oval Office, Drowning the Beast and Recreating the White House).

Here’s something cool for you classic TV fans: Timeless Media Group has set The Gene Autry Show: The Complete Television Series for DVD release on 12/10. The 15-disc set will include all 91 episodes along with “a bevy of bonus content, including select episodes of Autry’s Melody Ranch radio show, vintage Autry commercial appearances, film trailers and photo galleries; as well as a bonus DVD showcasing classic episodes from Autry’s other Flying ‘A’ Pictures television series The Range Rider, Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill Jr. and The Adventures of Champion.”

Entertainment One will release Brian De Palma’s Passions on Blu-ray and DVD on 11/5 (SRP $29.98 and $24.98). The film stars Rachel McAdams and Noomi Rapace.

Here’s a surprise: Scorpion Entertainment just released Roy Ward Baker’s The Monster Club on Blu-ray, starring Vincent Price and Donald Pleasence. We haven’t seen the disc, so we can’t vouch for quality, but it’s just $11 on Amazon.

So I had this whole news update post planned for today, along with Bud’s new View from the Cheap Seats column and a new Blu-ray review or two as well, and I was deep in the process of getting it all ready to go live on the site, when something happened that completely distracted me.

I figured I’d share it with you guys this afternoon, because it goes right to my cinema geek credibility. And I knew that some of you would appreciate it as much as I do. [Read on here...]

So there’s this terrific graphic artist, Mark Englert. (Here’s a link to his blog.) He’s been doing these great art prints based on films and TV series that geeks have a sweet spot for: Back to the Future, Alien, Fringe, etc. In fact, if you happened to attend IMAX screenings of Star Trek Into Darkness this past summer on the films opening weekend, that wide aspect “glow in the dark” poster of the Enterprise and the Vengeance many of you got for free – Mark did that.

So it turns out that he recently held a gallery showing in L.A. of prints and artwork based on the films of Stanley Kubrick. And at Comic-Con this past summer, he was selling event-exclusive limited edition versions of a couple of those prints. Now… I had no idea of any of this until I happened to spot this print for sale on eBay...

Yes, that is meant to be director Stanley Kubrick standing there on the left hand side...

As you can probably imagine, this image hits a whole number of geek sweet spots for me. It was immediately clear that this needed to be hanging on my office wall. So I bought one. It showed up in this morning’s mail... and I haven’t been able to get a damn thing done since. Mark, if you’re reading this: Genius, man. A big tip of the hat from me to you. This is eleven different kinds of badass and I’ve gotten absolutely nothing of substance accomplished today whatsoever because of it.

Anyway, as I said... I figured some of you Bits readers would understand. Every once in a while as a geek, you’re fortunate enough to have a day like this where you just get caught up in something and lose all track of everything.

As for the rest of you, my apologies, thanks for your patience and I promise I’ll be back with news, reviews and Bud’s column tomorrow. Remember: All work and no play...